Battery-economizer.



A. L. JENKS.

BATTERY ECONOMIZEH.

APPLlCATlON FILED JAN. 10, 1916.

1,207,922. Patented Dec. 12,1916.

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ARTHUR L. JENKS, OF MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA.

BATTERY-ECONOMIZER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 12, 1916.

Application filed January 10, 1916. Serial No. 71,327.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ARTHUR L. JENKs, a citizen of the United States, residing at Minneapolis, in the county of Hennepin, State of Minnesota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Battery- Economizers; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to a battery economizer.

I11 the ordinary telegraph, telephone and electrical signal stations, at local circuit is maintained, in addition to the main line circuit, to operate the local receiving apparatus, the local circuit merely amplifying the signals received through the main line receiving instrument or relay. In practically all of these stations this local circuit is kept closed when not in operation thus entailing a considerable expense for battery material and maintenance, the form of battery generally used, as it has been found more practicable for such work, being a wet battery known as the gravity, which re quires constant attention. By the use of my economizer which automatically keeps the local circuit open when the latter is not in use, all waste of material is eliminated, much longer life and less supervision of the local battery is insured and it is also made economically possible to substitute for the wet battery, ordinary dry cells which, as is commonly known, are absolutely clean and require no attention whatever.

It is therefore an object of my invention to provide a device which will automatically maintain the local circuit closed during the sending or receiving of a message and will automatically open the circuit after the despatch or receipt of the message has been completed.

With this and other objects in View, such as will appear from a reading of the preceding paragraphs of this specification and such as will appear as my description progresses, my invention comprises the combination and arrangement of parts as set forth in and falling within the scope of the appended claims.

In the drawing: Figure 1 is a diagrammatic View of a local circuit showing my economizer attached thereto; Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the economizer, the section being taken through the casing in a vertical plane; Fig. 3 is a horizontal sectional view therethrough, and Fig. A is a vertical sectional view taken at right angles to Fig. 2.

Referring to the drawing by reference characters wherein like parts are indicated by like characters throughout the several views, to simplify the description of my invention, I will confine its application to a local circuit in a telegraph station, the same principle applying to the other stations above enumerated.

In Fig. 1 of the drawing, I have illustrated a local circuit which includes a sounder 1, a local battery 2 and a relay 3. This relay is provided with an armature 1 which is pivoted, at 5, to a base 6. The relay is further provided with an inverted U-shaped arm 7 in which two opposing screws 9 and 10 are mounted with which the upper end of the armature .4; alternately engages. The screw 10 is insulated from arm 7 and serves merely as a back stop for the armature l in the ordinary use. I make use of it to support the contact point 43 for auxiliary circuit as hereinafter described. A circuit is completed through the elements above mentioned, through a wire 11 from the battery to the sounder, a wire 12 from the sounder to the economizer which is indicated in Fig. 1 by the letter A, through a wire 13 to the screw 9 and the arm 7 through the armature 4; and a wire 14 back to the battery 2. This construction described is the ordinary local circuit used in telegraph stations with the exception that the wires 12 and 13 have been separated to include the economizer A therein. This economizer includes a casing 15 having an electromagnet 16 therein which is disposed horizontally. The armature 17 of this magnet is pivotally mounted, at 18, on a frame 19 and is provided with an angularly extending arm 20 which extends over the magnet as illustrated in the drawing. The armature 17 is normally pulled away from the magnet by means of a spring 21, the tension of which may be varied by a thumb screw 22. The armature may however be kept in enga ement with the magnet by means of a 100 ing pawl 28 which is pivoted, at 24, to the casing. A train of gears 25 is mounted on the horizontal bar of the frame 19 and secured to the shaft 26, on which the endmost of these gears is mounted, is a ratchet wheel 27. A bar 28 is pivotally mounted on this shaft 26 and carries a pawl 29 which is pressed into engagement with the teeth of the ratchet by a spring 30. This bar 28 is connected to the arm 20 by a link 31 o that when the armature 17 is drawn to the magnet 16, the raising of the arm 20 will cause the pawl 29 to ride on the ratchet 27. When the spring 21 operates to draw the armature 17 away from the magnet the movement of the arm 20 downwardly will be retarded by the train of gears as will be readily appreciated. A pair of contact members and 33 are provided and are mounted in the casing while a pair of spring contacts 84 and are also mounted in the casing. One end of the wire which forms the magnet extends and is connected to the binding post of the spring contact while t 1e other end 37 extends and is connected to a binding post 38. The wire 12 (see Fig. 1) is connected to the binding post of the contact while the Wire 13 is connected to the binding post of the contact It may be here stated that the contact 34; is adapted to engage the contact 32 while the contact 35 is adapted to engage the contact 33 for purposes which will later appear. A wire 39 extends from the binding post 88 to a battery 4E0 while a wire a1 extends from the binding post 42 on the contact 35 to a contact point 13 on the screw 10, which contact is insulated from the arm 7 but is adapted to contact with the armature 4 of the relay 3. A wire 1% extends from the armature 4 back to the battery 10. Thus an auxiliary circuit is set up through the economizer A.

It is to be noted that when the armature 17 of the magnet 16 is drawn to the magnet, the end of the arm 20 will engage the spring contact 3-4 and consequently move the same out of its contacting relation with the contact 32 and when the spring 21 moves the arm downwardly, the end thereof will engage the spring contact 35 and disengage this from the contact 33, allowing the contact 3a to engage the contact 32.

in operation when the main line is at rest or closed, the armature 4- of the relay 3 is held in engagement with the screw 9 by the relay and the auxiliary circuit, through the wires 41 and 1 1-, is open at the screw 10 while the armature 17 of the magnet 16 is pulled away from the magnet by the spring 21. The arm 20 is thus lowered so that it engages the contact spring 35 and opens the local circuit at this point by disengaging the contacts 33 and 35. At the same time the contact spring 34 is released by the downward movement of the arm 20 and the auxiliary circuit is closed at this point by the engagement of the contacts 32 and 34.

It will therefore be seen that both the auxiliary circuit and the local circuit through the economizer are open. When the main line is opened the armature 4: of the relay 3 moves to the contact point 13 on the screw 10 and closes the auxiliary circuit so that the magnet 16 is energized and the arm 20 i raised. At this time the pawl 29 will move upwardly on the ratchet wheel 27. The contact spring 35 will thus be allowed to engage the contact while the contact spring 3% will be disengaged from the corn tact 32 and the auxiliary circuit will thus be opened by the disengagement of these contacts 32 and When the auxiliary circuit is broken the arm 20 will begin its downward movement, being retarded in this movement by the train of gears described, under the action of the spring 21. movement of the arm 20 is exceedingly slow so that the local circuit is left closed by the engagement of the contacts 33 and 35 during a few moments at which time the sounder 1 will respond to signals from the main line through the relay. As the arm 20 descends and just before it reaches a point where it will engage with the contact spring 35 to open the local circuit it releases the spring 3 1 so that the auxiliary circuit is closed and thus it the main line is in operation the arm 20 is again tossed upwardly and the local circuit is not opened. Thus the sounder may work continuously. hen however the main line is closed long enough for the arm 20 to reach the contact spring 85, the local circuit will be opened and remain so until the main line is again opened and inasmuch as the auxiliary circuit is also opened as previously described all waste of the local or auxiliary battery will be eliminated.

While I have illustrated and described a particular embodiment of my invention, it

This

has merely been for the sake of convenience and I do not wish to be limited to that particular embodiment as it is obvious that numerous changes may be made in the details of construction without departing from the spirit of the invention or exceeding the scope of the appended claims.

l/Vhat I claim is 1. In a device of the class described, the combination with a casing having an electromagnet mounted therein, ofan armature for said magnet having an arm extending therefrom, a circuit in which the magnet is included, which circuit includes a stationary contact and a spring contact and also an automatically operated switch, a second circuit including a stationary contact and a spring contact and an automatically operated switch, the saidspring contacts being in the path of movement of the aforementioned arm, the magnet being adapted to move the arm in one direction to disen gage one of the spring contacts from the corresponding stationary contact and a spring for moving the arm in the opposite direction for disengaging the other spring contact from the corresponding stationary contact.

2. In a device of the class described, the combination with a casing having an electromagnet mounted therein, of an armature for said magnet having an arm extending therefrom, a circuit in which the magnet is included, which circuit includes a stationary contact and a spring contact and also an automatically operated switch, a second circuit including a stationary contact and a spring contact and an automatically operated switch, the said spring contacts being in the path of movement of the aforementioned arm, the magnet being adapted to move the arm in one direction to disengage one of the spring contacts from the corresponding stationary contact and a spring for moving the arm in the opposite direction for disengaging the other spring contact from the corresponding stationary contact, the said spring contact being so arranged that the movement of the arm under the action of the spring will be arrested when the first mentioned spring contact engages the corresponding stationary contact Copies of this patent may be obtained for if the automatically operated switch in the same circuit is closed.

3. In a device of the class described, the combination with a line circuit, of a local circuit, an auxiliary circuit having means therein for closing the local circuit upon the opening of the line circuit, the auxiliary circuit being normally open when the local circuit is closed and the aforementioned means in the auxiliary circuit being constructed and arranged to permit the local circuit and the auxiliary circuit to be closed at the same time for a short interval.

4. In a device of the class described, the combination with a main line circuit, of a local circuit and an auxiliary circuit, of switches in the local and auxiliary circuits and means controlled by the main line to alternately open said switches, the said means being inactive to effect either of said switches during a short period of time whereby both of said local and auxiliary circuits remain closed.

In testimony whereof, I affix my signature, in the presence of two witnesses.

ARTHUR L. J ENKS. WVitnesses:

H. I. WEs'roN, F. L. Morrn'r'r.

five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C. 

